HeartVision Song Contest 24
The '''HeartVision Song Contest 24,It took place for the first time in Austria following the country's first victory at the HeartVision Song Contest 23 in Paris,France with the song "Tell Me Why" performed by DERAM. The contest was held at the Brucknerhaus Arena in Linz,and consisted of two semi-finals on 10 and 11 September 2018,and the final 20 September 2018.The three live shows were hosted by Conchita Wurst,Natália Kelly and Zoë. thumb|left Winner after a big and exciting show was Wincent Weiss from Germany with his the song "An Wunder", she reached 362 Points. At the 2nd Place was Finland represent by FELIN with her song "Gossip",she reached 276Points and on 3rd Place was Estonia represent by Laura with her song "Tõusulained", she reached 254 Points. Location : Further information: Austria thumb|left Austria, officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich, About this sound listen (help·info)), is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.8 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi). The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft) The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian language as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federated states.The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.8 million, is Vienna.Other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is consistently ranked as one of the richest countries in the world by per capita GDP terms. The country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. The republic declared its perpetual neutrality in foreign political affairs in 1955. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995,and is a founder of the OECD.Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995,and adopted the euro currency in 1999. Host City : Further information: Linz Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria (German: Oberösterreich). It is in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of the Czech border, on both sides of the River Danube. The population of the city is 200,839, and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about 271,000. In 2009 Linz, together with the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, was chosen as the European Capital of Culture. Since 1 December 2014 Linz is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities (UCCN) network as a City of Media Arts. Cities receive this title for enriching the urban lifestyle through the sponsorship and successful integration of media art and involving society in these electronic art forms. Linz is well known for the Linzer torte, which is said to be the oldest cake in the world, with its first recipe dating from 1653. Venue : Further information: Brucknerhaus thumb|left The Brucknerhaus is a festival and congress centre in Linz, Austria named after the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. The building was designed by Finnish artchitects Heikki and Kaija Siren. Its construction took place from 1969 to 1973. It opened on 23 March 1974. It holds about 200 performances per year, with about 180,000 of total audience. It is home to the Ars Electronica festival and Brucknerfest. In conjunction with the Austrian broadcasting company Österreichischer Rundfunk, it also organizes the Linzer Klangwolke, an annual musical event. Bidding phase The bidding phase for the edition kicked off one days after the results of the twenty-fourth Edition. Any city could apply to host the competition, on the 21 August one city and one were announced, they have interest to host the edition. On the 21 August 2017 it as announced that Linz would be the Host city of the 24th HeartVision Song Contest. Format The HBU has decided that in the upcoming edition there will be most likely 2 Semi-finals. In each semi-final 10 countries will qualify for the Grand Final to make a line-up of 26 competing countries (20 Semi-Final qualifers + Big 6). Voting The HBU has announced that that a new voting system would be also used in this edition as well. Each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Televoting votes from all countries are pooled. After viewers have cast their votes, the results of each professional jury are presented. After the results of the professional juries are presented, the televoting points from all participating countries are combined, providing one score for each song. The results of countries finishing between 11th and 26th in the public vote are automatically added to the scoreboard, with only the results of the top ten countries being announced by the hosts. The new voting system is also used to determine the qualifiers from each semi-final, but as before the qualifiers are announced in a random order. Semi Final allocation draw This edition, the countries that are classified from 1st to 6th place in the Grand Final of the previous edition will be the so-called "Big 6", they will have the privilege of being in the Grand Final automatically as well as voting in the semi-finals without competing in them, this six countries are divided to vote between the two semi-finals: The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place at Brcuknerhaus on 24 August 2018. The first part of the draw determined in which semi-final the Big six would have to vote. The second part of the draw decided in which half of the respective semi-finals each country would perform, with the exact running order determined by the producers of the show at a later date. 40 countries will participate in each semi-finals, respectively. Running Order The Running order of both Semi-finals was official announced by ORF on 24 August 2018, shortly before the semi-finals start. The Running order for Grand Final will official announced in 11 September 2018, one day before the Grand Final will start. Results Semi-Final 1 Twenty countries will participate in the first semi-final. Cyprus, Finland and Italy will also vote in this semi-final. Semi-Final 2 Twenty countries will participate in the second semi-final. Austria, Bulgaria and Vatican City will also vote in this semi-final. Final The following countries either finished in the top 6 of the previous edition and therefore automatically qualify to the final of this edition or qualified from the semi-finals. Non-qualifier results Other countries : Further information: HeartVision Broadcasting Union Countries that are active members of the HeartVision Broadcasting Union (HBU) are also eligible to participate in the HeartVision Song Contest. As in every edition, an invitation to all the members have been sent in order to confirm whether they will participate or not. The following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below. Links *Google+ Groups *Youtube